Wednesday, 31 December 2014

My Year in Review 2014

Well, what a year it's been.

It started with the Arctic 30 returning home, the conclusion of a successful campaign. Since then I've wished at least one them back behind bars (nobody's laughing Phil...) but it was a great start to the year.

The campaign against fracking at Barton Moss continued and, after Father Christmas delivered a wind turbine blade to the gates (with a little help from Reclaim the Power) people were starting to take notice. As an experienced media tart I muscled my way into the press team, elbowing aside protectors who'd been camped out in the freezing rain for three months to get my mug on the telly.

I soon found myself in a propaganda war with Greater Manchester Police. GMP would subsequently claim (to the PCC's Independent Panel) that they had trouble getting
their message across.

My talent for self publicity certainly helped in my self appointed role as Press Officer. I managed to get myself into both the Daily Mail and the Kidderminster Shuttle, which may be a unique double, and fielded calls from journalists who'd 'lost' Bez's phone number. Alas The Guardian never returned my calls.

In June the We Need To Talk About Fracking road show came to Manchester. The debate was a little one sided as the opposition didn't show up, but at least I got to meet the most famous Glossopian of them all, Vivienne Westwood.

In August it was back to the county of my birth for Reclaim the Power in Blackpool. A trip home to have tea with my mum meant I missed the really exciting stuff, such as the eviction from the movement of all the conspiracy theorists, but ever the diligent media tart I arrived in time for the photocall. I'm behind the 'o' of 'not'.

I then forgot about fracking for a while and went

after another dirty fuel. After twenty hours on a bus from Islington with Greenpeace UK I arrived by the amazingly beautiful Deulowitzer See in the east of Germany to be part of a 7500 strong Human Chain against brown coal.

Greenpeace Germany accused us of drinking their bar dry. Probably because of that I found myself on stage singing a duet with a local musician at the village pub. Pity the poor Germans. However it was nice to know that despite coming from the land of UKIP the rest of Europe still likes us.

It'd too early to know if the campaign has been successful, but we managed to get the issue raised during the Swedish General Election debate and there is progress. Germany meanwhile continues to lead the world in Renewable energy.

In September there was a fracking fringe meeting at the Labour Party Conference, where I finally got to meet the former Environment Minister Michael Meacher. When Lord Melchett and I trashed the GM test crop in 1999 Meacher had to go on Newsnight to defend the government's position. The interview took place to the backdrop of a picture of my bottom as I was led away by the police.

It was back to fracking September when I started my next job as a journalist for the Fracking North Conference. TV crews showed up and I got to look impressive in front of some clever people by being the one they chose to interview. The footage was never broadcast, but they don't need to know that.

In November it was back to rabble rousing as we hosted the Northwest launch of the One Million Climate jobs report, where I was blown off stage by some pretty power union speakers. However it was at least a chance to campaign on something positive for a change.

Somewhere along the line I did some work on the Arctic, signing up various "top influencers" to the Greenpeace Declaration on the Arctic. I bagged Ms Westwood and former Irish President Mary Robinson, amongst others.

So it's been an interesting year. I achieved a lifetime ambition of finally appearing in the Earth First! Journal. I've met interesting people. I've seen a good number of them loaded into police vans and taken away. I've been part of a fantastic team in Manchester that's put on some great events. I've tried to change the world and....mostly failed.